comet. to help us better prepare for the next close encounter. >> you can keep up-to-date with all of the news if you head over to our website. you can see our front page there with our lead story. all of that for you at aljazeera.com. landscape. history. this is one of the most important cities in mexico. therefore it makes perfect sense to make a film festival work in this beautiful city. >> some deals with violence and impunity, one is a documentary that follows mothers across mexico as they search for evidence of their children's

whereabouts. opened the festival with his film, birdman a chance to show another side of the country. >> sometimes distort the reality and the perception of the people really can be absolutely destroyed by some images that represent one event in one state of one country that is much more conflict than just this. >> mexico is a complex country but its people like people everywhere have a taste for life's simple plur pleasures any want to take advantage of all this film festival has to offer. like this scene under the stars. adam rainey, al jazeera, mexico. >> get the latest news at aljazeera.com.

>> the number one problem in chinese cinema is censorship. from the start of filming, we're already castrated. certain crucial parts just cannot be cut.

>> zhang yuan is a well-known director in china. his film beijing flickers is finally making it to the big screen after being held up for more than a year with the government censors. he says the authorities are much harder on domestic filmmakers. >> beijing flickers is about the social realities facing young people in beijing. outsiders know beijing for its rapid economic development. but those at the bottom of the ladder face tremendous difficulties. how do we reflect this in a film? it was very tough.

before government censorship, we were already self-censoring when scripting, shooting and editing. >> china banned zhang yuan from filmmaking for two years in the 1990s... for portraying chinese society in a negative light. even though he has won numerous international awards, zhang says censorship stifles chinese cinema. >> a flood can flush away the white house in a hollywood film. what chinese film dares to do the equivalent? as it is, i'm not left with much space. i still have to deal with the censors. people say chinese food products are dodgy. we should be censoring food, not movies. >> but one young director has a different take on censorship.

cai xuegang is making a half-hour short film to showcase his ability to potential investors for a feature length project. >> china has opened up in many ways. restrictions are everywhere. you think american films have no restrictions? a film is restricted by themes, censorship, social expectations, budget, everything. it's normal. films are made in an environment of restriction. >> china's problem is not only censorship, but also the lack of a rating system. you can't expect an 18 or a 20-year-old, or someone older, to be watching the same thing as a child. if we solve this, there will be many directors and writers who can truly express reality with courage. >> the challenge is to create the greatest possibilities within the rules of the game.

maybe it's because my generation of filmmakers have yet to surface. if we get our chance, chinese cinema would flourish. >> now 35 years old, cai feels ready to step up from directing commercials, corporate and music videos. he sees hollywood creating more opportunities in china... and is geared up for the cut-throat competition. >> i've chased this dream for over 10 years. i don't see a problem with more people in the industry. the majority of them may not be great, that's normal. no one is born a genius. look at peter jackson who directed lord of the rings. he used to make low budget horror films, and they were bad. but market forces are at work. when you're poor, people won't work with you. one day when your talent surfaces, everyone can see it. it's fair.

>> that's why even for a short film, cai has hired a team of professional martial arts stuntmen, led by wang kun. wang has assisted action directors in chinese blockbusters... like ip man. he also appears in the sequel... as a kung fu disciple to the lead actor donnie yen. >> after ip man accepted his first disciple, he went on to accept three others. i was one of them. they used my real name, wang kun... that's me! >> wang kun is excited about the chance of working on american co-productions, especially action flicks. but he says compared to the west, china's unique strength will always lie in its fighting scenes. >> they have less legwork, although most of their upper body work is pretty good.

in american films, the strikes are very singular, with violent contact. the main difference is that chinese fight scenes tend to be showy. viewers find it pleasing to the eye. we should combine chinese moves with hollywood's computer-generated effects and create something really unique. >> finding a happy marriage between east and west, is the ambition bona film group. its promotional reel is a hard sell on the reasons to invest in chinese cinema. bona is china's leading privately-owned film producer and distributor. in 2012, it signed deals with universal studios and fox international productions... a unit under news corp. bona is now working with fox on

their first co-production. >> movies are my lifeblood... >> i meet yu dong, the boss of bona, and the man behind it all. he says hollywood will benefit china as a distribution channel. >> chinese cinema needs to enter the english language market in a hurry. hollywood products can enter any market in the world, be it chinese, arabic or anywhere else. that is the power of hollywood. so co-productions with chinese film companies will propel its films into the english language market. >> but out of more than 700 films produced, three quarters were deemed not good enough for theatrical release. to protect the domestic industry, china only allows 34 foreign films a year to screen in cinemas. local productions also get a bigger share of ticket sales,

making it even more tempting for foreign studios to work with them. >> we can't depend on laws to ward off the force of hollywood. the only way is for filmmakers to work hard and improve the industry... we have a duty to make good films that reflect local culture and satisfy local demands. >> historical epics are popular with chinese viewers. mao junjie is the female lead of an upcoming tv series, flying swords of dragon gate. it's a spin-off of a box office hit by the same name. both the movie and the tv series are bona productions. also a movie actress, mao tells me she's concerned about chinese being typecast in hollywood collaborations.

>> viewers abroad mostly know chinese actors for their kung fu and fighting roles. as more co-pros take place, i hope chinese actors can also be known for non-action roles. >> i ask her about the language barrier. >> the story can be set in an environment where i speak my mother tongue. then i can be very natural and not worry about saying the words right. china is special for our period films... and our dynasties. we have 5,000 years of history to draw from for stories ideas. >> and the hengdian world studios, the largest outdoor film set in the world, is perfect for such genres. its locations include a replica of the forbidden city and a qing dynasty palace... action takes place here every day, with star-struck tourists

getting up close and personal. >> "there are so many productions going on here it's very easy to get in the way of filming". "we had to get out of the way because they're about to film a marching band coming through". >> in jacmel on haiti's southern coast surfers aren't an unusual sight these days, but just a few months ago, some of these boys couldn't even swim. they're all part of "surf haiti", an ambitious project aimed at bringing tourists and their money to the beaches. joan mamique who runs the camp says surfing here is about more than just catching waves. samson jules, who was one of the first boys to learn to surf

here, tells us the project has the potential to change the lives of his entire community. the passion from these young haitians is unmistakable and it's the chance to be part of the lives of people like samson that organizers hope will draw surfers to these waves and ultimately help tourism grow. >> i would love for there to be a haitian representation in the international surfing circuit... professional. i would, really, really - 'cause then once they announce "yeah, this kid is from haiti" and he's out there ripping it, then all of a sudden people go "haiti... surfing" and a whole industry kind of pays attention. >> "surf haiti" remains for now a small project with few customers. with waves like this, it's hoped that will soon change.

>> in the hills outside the replica of the forbidden city, li hongyu is on another set directing the tv version of flying swords. >> period stories allow us to really stretch our imagination without departing from a historical background. >> but li says even a fertile imagination doesn't solve the problems that tv and film share behind the scenes. and that's where china needs

hollywood's professionalism. >> unlike the situation overseas, there are no unions here. in china, it's disorganized and informal. people simply ask their friends if they need crew members to work on a set... the crew is a mixed bag good and bad workers. through co-productions, the professionalism of foreign crews can rub off on them... >> in this scene, where actors are strung up by cables, their fate is not in the hands of a professional crew, but also extras with time to kill. >> it's easy to get hurt in fight scenes if people are distracted. i don't know if productions abroad film fighting scenes the way we do, or do they involve better technology? i think we need to learn from foreign studios if there are ways to make filming less risky or tough. >> it's urgent to seek hollywood

for production experience, technical expertise and special effects. but when it comes to dialogue, scripting and directing for chinese films, we should seek chinese talent. that would be a real co-production. >> i meet tang long again at this warehouse where he's storing future dreams. he has ambitions to set up an equipment sale and rental company to ride the wave of the booming industry. >> i'll move all these to the basement so this will be a work space. and over there, a reception... and i'll renovate that area to display my samples. i'll modify products that are not available in the market and put them here.

>> tang takes me to the basement and shows me his pride and joy. >> i modified this from a powered paraglider. he's proud to say his invention has been used by top hong kong director... tsui hark. >> when tsui hark was filming flying swords of dragon gate, his greatest problem was how to control wind... >> behind-the-scenes footage of the 2011 blockbuster reveals tsui hark's frustration... trying to control wind. eventually, the production team took up tang long's suggestion to use the fan of a powered paraglider. tang says the director was so impressed he used it again for his next film. >> when he filmed rise of the sea dragon, he was determined to use this. that's why the mainland producers looked me up. after my modification, it's easy to control.

i can tilt up and down or pan it around, and because it runs on fuel, it's easy to control the strength of the wind by throttling it. the wind spreads out evenly and looks natural. >> production crews today are inferior to those in the 1980s, because many today used to be farmers. they weren't making money so they migrated to the cities for jobs. they have no professional filmmaking or technical knowledge. >> tang long and his friend are making space in his warehouse to get ready for renovation.

in 2006, when he made the long journey here from his rural hometown hubei, he knew nothing about filmmaking. it's been a steep learning curve. but with chinese cinema entering a golden age, tang long believes it's also time for his dreams to shine. >> many young people come here with dreams of displaying their talents and this film city becomes a big stage for them. after some time working on sets, they realize it's not as wonderful as they imagined. there's a saying among people here, those who leave are wise, those who stay are heroes. i felt i couldn't realize my dream to be an actor, so i decided to work behind the scenes. i'm not disappointed because i love the film industry.... now, behind the scenes, i'm truly a filmmaker.

>> we report from baghdad where people are living in fear of the ministry of defense and they insist the city is safe. celebrations at the